History is complicated
MALCOLM X, as a member of the Nation of Islam, preached anti-semitism and called the white man “devil.” After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he dismissed the murder as a case of “the chickens coming home to roost.”
In Spike Lee’s biographical drama, “Malcolm X,” a white teenage girl approaches the angry activist and says: “Excuse me, Mr. X. Hi . ... I wanted to ask you, what can a white person like myself who isn’t prejudiced, what can I do to help you … further your cause?” He stares sternly, and replies, “Nothing.” She leaves in tears.
But Malcolm X changed. He visited Mecca, where he saw people of all colors worshipping together. It changed the way he thought. He repudiated his anger toward whites after discovering that people were more similar than they were different. He renounced the racist ideology of the Nation of Islam, and in doing so knowingly signed his own death warrant. He was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.
Alabama Gov. George Wallace, in 1963, proclaimed, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” at his inauguration, and later stood in a doorway at the University of Alabama to bar blacks from entering. Nine years later, Wallace took a would-be assassin’s bullet, leaving him paralyzed. Older, wiser and chastened by the attempt on his life, Wallace changed. Wallace, one day and without invitation, went to a Black church where 300 clergymen were holding a conference. He asked to speak. Wallace asked for forgiveness. He said to the church leaders, “I never had hate in my heart for any person. But I regret my support of segregation and the pain it caused the black people of our state and nation. … I’ve learned what pain is, and I’m sorry if I’ve caused anybody else pain. Segregation was wrong — and I am sorry.”
Even a Confederate general can change.
Confederate Gen. William Mahone, one of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s most able commanders, owned slaves before the Civil War. But after the war, he led an interracial movement. He organized and became the leader of the Readjuster Party, the most successful interracial political alliance in the post-emancipation South.
From 1879 through 1883, the party dominated Virginia, with a governor in the statehouse and two Readjusters in the U.S. Senate.
The Readjusters established what became Virginia
State University, the first state-supported college to train black teachers.
Where does this viewing of history through the prism of modern-day feelings end? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once gave advice to a gay man that today would be heresy. President John F. Kennedy, frustrated with a Democrat who hadn’t supported his election, threatened to banish him by giving him an obscure ambassadorship to one of the, as Kennedy put it, “boogie republics” in Africa. Tell that to Black Lives Matter.
History is complicated. It requires perspective and understanding, something sadly lacking in those who seek to erase history by imposing today’s standards of right and wrong.
Larry Elder is an author and talk show host. Follow on Twitter @Larryelder.